Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
Columbus, Ohio-based Northwest Bank, which entered the Indiana market in 2020 with its acquisition of Muncie-based MutualFirst Financial Inc., has opened its first Indianapolis-area branch.
The branch, at 11 Municipal Drive in Fishers, occupies 1,320 square feet within a larger 8,964-square-foot space that Northwest opened in 2023 as a regional office for its Indiana operations. Until this month, that space did not include a retail branch where customers could conduct transactions or consult with a banker.
Northwest hosted a grand opening at the branch Tuesday.
Additional central Indiana branches are on the horizon, said Jennifer Gibson, Northwest’s Fishers-based region president and executive director of retail banking.
“The Indianapolis market is of prime importance to us, just based on the growth dynamics in this market,” she said.
Over the next three to five years, Gibson said, Northwest aims to open another three Indianapolis-area branches. She declined to specify where those new branches might go. (The bank also has expansion plans in its headquarters city of Columbus, Gibson said.)
The Fishers location is the first new branch Northwest has opened in six years.
“That’s significant for us, Gibson said. “It just marks that that growth pattern that we’re on with the executive team that we brought in to really help us grow and take the bank to the next level.”
Within the past few years, Northwest has hired several new executives, including Urich Bowers, who joined the bank in June 2024 as its chief consumer banking and strategy officer. Bowers previously worked at Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group Inc.
With the opening of the Fishers branch, Northwest now has 175 Indiana employees at 19 full-service locations, in markets ranging from South Bend to Bloomfield, plus one freestanding drive-up location. Of those 175 employees, 24 work in Fishers—either in the branch or in a corporate role.
Across its entire operating footprint, Northwest has $14 billion in assets, 130 offices and 11 drive-up locations in Indiana, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The bank announced in December its plans to acquire Williamsport, Pennsylvania-based Penns Woods Bancorp Inc., the holding company of both Jersey Shore State Bank and Luzerne Bank. That transaction, an all-stock deal valued at about $270.4 million, is expected to close late next month.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct Northwest Bank executive Jennifer Gibson’s job title.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.
Editor's note: You can comment on IBJ stories by signing in to your IBJ account. If you have not registered, please sign up for a free account now. Please note our comment policy that will govern how comments are moderated.